From the gallops
The wintry conditions, plus a blue sky, put a smile on the face of
our Web Team photographer this weekend. Numerous occasions, he's turned
up at the yard only to be thwarted by a mixture of rain, morning
darkness and low flying cloud - just too poor light to snap horses
flying up the gallops, he maintains.
Well, it doesn't seem to stop Grossick producing high quality photos
from the racecourse, so maybe it's time we reviewed his contract......
Fozzo (Enduria Partnership), Nick Bannerman (Potassium Syndicate) and
Al Duncan (er, friendless) had made the early rise and formed TSMGW.
First on the scene towards the top of the Up-the-Middle gallop were Al
& Fozzo who discussed all things topical in racing. Subjects covered
ranged from Jockey Club management of racecourses (Kempton in
particular) through to the increase in bookmaker contributions to the
levy - without either of the pair really
understanding the implications on National Hunt racing. Safe to say
(they concluded), whatever is sold or received, the rich will get
richer.
At that, attention was turned to ante-post betting for the
Cheltenham Festival, with Al able to reel off several bets that
have already gone down on non-runners, and Fozzo revealing he'd a Gordon
Elliot dark horse for the Fred Winter (that was in fact the 6-1
favourite......).
Thank goodness for Tony Calvin, but for whom most weekends would be
profit-less for this duo.
As if on cue, with Festival thoughts in mind, Nick Bannerman appeared to watch his classy gelding Shades of Midnight do a couple of nice pieces of work, and the opportunity was taken to test out our bumper candidate The Big Bad Dream, alongside the 142-rated hurdler. Nick and his cohorts have a series of races lined up for Shades of Midnight (dependent upon racecourse form), and Nick was happy to discuss his hopes with TSMGW who had assembled. Fozzo, being the only owner present with a winner this season, talked through each part of Tomahawk Wood's Ayr victory with his only concern being just what view the handicapper would take on Tuesday morning. 7-9lb was the agreed judgement.
For the record, and we know you'd much rather be given the facts, the horses exercised were
Lot 1
- Snapping Turtle (Pinky)
- 'Sid' (Milky)
- Dali Mail (Kingy)
- Baby Ticker (Garry)
Snapping Turtle, having run at Kelso last Sunday, and the unraced 'Sid', who may be due for a break, completed one spin Up-the-Middle, the other pair came up twice.
From lot 1 : Snapping Turtle leads 'Sid', Dali Mail (hidden) and Baby Ticker
Lot 2
- Tomahawk Wood (Sarah)
- Hartforth (Milky)
- Shades of Midnight (Pinky)
- Night Comes In (Kingy)
- Big Bad Dream (Garry)
As per Lot 1, recent runners Tomahawk Wood and Hartforth stretched
their legs once on the woodchip, with the remaining trio coming up
twice.
Callum exercised Keyboard
Gangster on his own later in the morning, and the 3 Musselburgh
runners from Friday had the day off.
From Lot 2 : Left to right - Tomahawk Wood, Big Bad
Dream, Shades of Midnight, Night Comes In (hidden) and Hartforth
Monthly eye-catcher awards
As chosen by The Saturday Morning Gallop Watchers (TSMGW).
Most impressive pieces of work this month have been carried out by
Shades of Midnight,
which could be timely is he makes his intended racecourse appearance
next Saturday.
Work riders? Young Lyall Hodgins (aka 'Milky') can regularly be counted
on to be available for weekend stable duties and work riding. Our hard
working Web Team (eh? - Ed) have updated his profile on the
Staff Member page too.
Well done Milky, your riding skills and attention to detail make our
weekend go ever so smoothly!
Looking ahead
Our next runners could be at Uttoxeter on Saturday and Ayr the following Monday.
A Class 2 handicap hurdle over 2m 4f at Uttoxeter is the tentative first choice of the next outing for Shades of Midnight. He's in fine form at home, and the word 'tentative' is used only because it's a week away, and all sorts of things can change in the forthcoming days - weather, going, etc.
Shades of Midnight (Pinky)
Further ahead, and equally tentative, would be what's in our plans
for Ayr next Monday.
Tomahawk Wood has come out of his Ayr victory a
week ago in fine health and there's a 0-100 2m 3f plus change on the card that would suit just fine.
Big Bad Dream,
aka 'Cliff', is being aimed at the bumper for his racecourse debut.
